The Unauthorized Rescue of Toda, Royal Messenger
by H Bregalad
Summary: Re:#Myst25 here is a strand-alone side quests of my sprawling Myst Fanfic. Action starts in Jergan's 3rd age and ends in Ethadainakhasa, with many brief stops in Barnum, and one aftermath scene in T'lithra. This isn't about a D'ni, but several of their hired hands freeing Toda, a wrongful convict, from a corrupt local government, and the life she builds for herself in another age.
1. Hope, Risk, Patience, and Freedom

**The Unauthorized Rescue of Toda, Royal Messenger**

Eight days of blinking from Jergan's bookbindery, to the little stone cell in someone's royal kitchen. Eight days of not knowing a word the guard spoke. Eight days of the kitchen being just a bit busier than yesterday. Eight days of speaking the magic words: "Lenni, Palla, Please?" and holding up Lenni's key. Eight days of being sworn at as the guard was made to leave her or his post to do kitchen work. Eight days of taking a small cup of fruit or fruit juice, and reaching through the bars to unlock that little box with a book inside. Eight days of dashed hopes as she re-appeared in Jergan's bookbindery, still hobbled, still an innocent convict, still a slave.

The ninth day the guard just looked at her and swore, and dashed to fill the order, no magic untranslatable words necessary.

The tenth day, the guard didn't swear, he just ground his teeth and balled his fists. But Lenni had given her new magic words, "Show me, I will get it."

The guard bit his lip and let her out. She already knew which cabinet held the tiny jars of juice. Three more days of feeling his glare as she ducked into the room beside the blink-in cell and unlocked the box and book that would forcefully blink her back to Jergan's bookbindery.

Three days of seeing the one book out of many who's title was in her native script and so close to her native tongue that she could taste the etymology if not the exact meaning of the title. Three days of not taking it down. Three days of returning to slavery because the guard, half her size and a third her age was watching. And might report. And might get Lenni in trouble. And might end her chances of a complete escape.

After eleven months of unjust punishment, of unjust hobbling of her innate ability to blink where she willed, of returning on foot every night to the government dorm where all the convicts turned in whatever wage they'd managed to earn toward paying off their debt to their victim, or to society in general, returning every night on foot to sleep, or to try to sleep. After eleven months of walking, even eleven days of book induced blinking, seemed like freedom.

Her dreams were strange, no longer the nightmares of a hobbled convict. Nor the happy dreams she'd generally had when she was a royal courier, honored for her speed. The fastest blinker in two kingdoms and the longest ranged endurance courier in at least four.

No, the dangers hadn't vanished, but with an illusion of her speed returned to her, for once her dreams let her outrun anything. And yet the anticipation wasn't happy, there was a dark bitterness, a storm of envy and hatred.

One more time Lenni showed her that he'd saved up more than a day's worth of palla juice and showed her the handsign for luck. One more time she took his key and blinked into the cell, went and picked up a jar. And walked past the guard the other direction. And one more time she got the box down and unlocked it and removed the key from the lock. But today she was alone, and didn't use the book inside. Today she hid the key in the book box as she and Lenni had planned, Where only the matching key of his smaller hobbled or travellame or travelblind _or something_ friend Ashokan could retrieve it. And she took down the other book, the book that seemed to be titled "Our-Auspiciousness-real-estate [for a] Houses" all one word, and let it blink her somewhere new.

A walled garden with many oddly small stone tables spread in amongst the flowers. Luckily there was a gap in the wall, with almost pointless little buttresses and a roof. So there must be enough hobbled and travellame around for the builders to have chosen to be accommodating.

Outside she found a wild space that was even more closed in. Not by buildings and stone but by _trees_. Trees taller than herself. Taller than buildings. Taller than any buildings she'd ever seen. And wider than doors.

And the vines. The vines that hung from the trees here and there, were bigger around than any tree trunks she'd seen before blinking into this place, some were even bigger than her elbow. There was only one path, so she took it.

And found herself in a village where people saw the stones of her bracelets, and looked away out of fear, and envy, and respect, not out of fear and disgust. Odd. They spoke a language so similar to hers that she wanted to rebuke their accent. But she knew better so she paid attention to it. So that she'd be able to mimic it soon.

She sold her hobble bracelets to a jeweller in exchange for money, a map to the capital, and a letter of introduction to his family's governmental representative. What a strange way to run things.

She blinked her way to the capital in half an hour, but took two days to deliver the letter.

 **Capitol**

She blinked her way to the capital in half an hour, she'd met a House Thris representative within an hour after.

The representative was unmoved by her request to become courier, he had a network of mind readers at his disposal, what need had he of her services?

To be unneeded is the loneliest number.

There were other representatives; but none of them needed a new message courier. After all, none of them got to be where they were by trusting someone off the street with a sensitive task like that.

But there was one who didn't assume she was a rival family's spy, or a merchant conglomerate's spy either. It seemed he was one of the mind readers himself and though he didn't quite believe the knowledge he pulled from her mind, he wasn't going to dismiss her without a demonstration.

Once the demonstration was complete he sat back and glared at her. She grew bored and tried to look into his mind, but he sensed her instantly and pushed her out. And crossed his arms.

"Sorry," she gulped.

"Sorry for what?"

"Intruding."

"You mean you have a choice?"

"Of course,"

His glare intensified. Finally he spoke, "How old were you when you gained control of your ability?"

"Five years, same as my brother. Though most of my friends did not until six or more."

He nodded, and looked away. Finally, he returned his attention to her. He uncrossed his arms.

"I'm willing to offer you the employment you've asked for, but there will be conditions."

"Of course, Such as?"

"My family will become your first loyalty. You will marry inside the family, and train your children to be your replacements. To hold their loyalty to the family before their loyalty even to you or your husband."

"But..."

"No, I don't care in the least who you pick for a husband as long as his loyalty matches or exceeds my own.

"Your work will take you among very many mind readers, some as strong as myself, a few stronger, some weaker. If you harbor dis-loyal thoughts, eventually you will be caught, and depending on how much trust has been shown you so far, you will be killed, since we couldn't imprison you, even if we wished."

"Please don't," she shuddered.

He raised an eyebrow, and she reached for his mind to check for the question. He must have dropped his shields at some point.

"It is possible to imprison me," she shuddered, "I'd tell you how if I didn't prefer to die."

"That's alright, I just saw both methods, and your opinions of each," He dropped his shields farther, he was kindly disposed to her, and wanted to keep her talents away from rival families.

"Please don't trust me with anything that dangerous. I want to be a courier again, but I don't need to know the message I carry, just who it's for, and whether to wait for a reply."

"Carry a paper, to carry a message." His tongue worked the inside of his mouth, "I hadn't considered that, how far can you reach in a single 'blink'?"

"It depends on how high the tavelstone I want is above the swell of ..." Mother's pregnant belly.

"So without travelstones, you won't be able to go as far?"

"No," she said, "Farther, it was the un-mined travelstone in the ground that blocked me from going exactly where I wanted before."

"So how far can you reach?" this time he indicated straight down.

She looked, after two fathoms of building, and two more of dirt there was no more fuzz of minds too tiny to reflect a color of their own. There were minds there, so far distant to seem pin pricks. She was momentarily dizzy but it was nothing compared to when she'd first arrived and seen the stars through the forest canopy and thought there were holes in the roof and couldn't calculate the distance to the stars or to the forest canopy because of the intermittentness of each.

After a moment she saw a pattern in the colors of the minds. She took a firm hold of her impulse to travel, and reached out for one of the larger of the unusually colored minds. There was no place to stand. Not only that, but the person was under half a mile of water. And outside its mind the creature wasn't even person shaped.

With a start she found herself halfway to the floor gasping and coughing. She sat still a moment, trying to relax, trying to still her shivering.

"Amazing," said the man, "You are amazing."

"But what?" she shuddered, and latched onto his mind, if only to give herself a solid point of reference while she regained her mental balance.

"Merphinoi," he said, _people who live in the sea._

"But they're not ... people shaped." she said.

"Neither are euama, but what does that matter. Interesting that you see their minds as a separate chord of colors."

She said nothing.

"Can you pick your travel stones out from the rest?"

"The rest of what, they are the only travelstones," she pointed.

He nodded. "Your first assignment is to retrieve them and bring them here." He said.

"But..."

"But what?"

"I can't carry them back." she stopped, "I mean, I'd have to walk back."

"Or ride a boat, like the rest of us. I understand your hesitancy to undertake such a tedious journey. Hmm. What can and can't you carry?"

"I can carry anything I can lift except another mind or a travelstone."

"So, no passengers either. That is disappointing."

"Sometimes it's possible to carry one's own children, until they reach a certain age. And sometimes pets and slaves, but it's unusual for the trust level to be high enough."

"We'll have to work on that."

"What do you mean?"

"If we could put a travel stone right here," he tapped his desk, "And one in my study at home." he shrugged, "There's a week long boat ride I have to make twice a year that I wouldn't mind skipping. If you could carry me."

"Oh,"

"As it is." he said, "You'll go get the stones, carry them to the next village, pack them in boxes and ship them: one here, and one to my summer home."

 _"Except there are four of them."_ "Alright," she said when she'd made sense of the details and his reasons for them.

 _"Alright, half and half then,"_ he agreed.

But she could already see her next assignment forming in his mind, travel around the world by quarters, or maybe eighths, and draw maps of what she could see through the floor, based on the predominant mind color and elevation. He'd have a professional artist turn them right side up when she returned. It was odd, she'd heard theories that the pregnant shape of the ground continued all the way around, but she'd never really grasped the thought of living on a ball, until she was on a completely different ball, one her travelsight could see right through to the other side.

And her assignment after that was to connect to his brother, and see if he could reach through her and talk to him, or if he'd only be able to read Toda's mind, as she read his brother's. Toda knew her connection could carry information both ways, but unlike Council-member Phrintha, she could only connect to one mind at a time.

He went to a drawer and retrieved some coins. He hesitated before handing them over.

"Dicker," he said, "Not hard enough to bring attention to yourself or your stones, but strongly enough that no one will guess that the money isn't yours. Strongly enough that people will think it's three to six month's wages for you. You should be able to bring almost half of it back."

"Alright,"

He held out twelve tiny gold coins.

"Umm," she said, _I don't know if I've agreed to all your terms._

"I don't think you'll know until we've worked together for a month or so." he said, "I'll try not to assume too much until you do decide."

"Alright,"

 **Dickering**

She took the money and reached for her stones, reminded herself that though they were large enough to see from a distance they were too small to blink to. But she could easily find the jeweller and the butcher next door, and... she found a place to stand in the street and blinked there.

She walked into the jeweller's and remembered that the hobbles had almost as much goldsteel in them as the gold in the money she carried. Could she convince the jeweller... or get just the stones without arousing suspicion.

The woman ahead of her handed her money to the jeweller, he wrote it down in his little book, and told her something. She began begging, he glared at her, then consulted his book.

"Alright," he said, "You still owe me three pence, that's little enough I don't need to hold your bracelets." he went to a cabinet and brought them to her. Large silver bracelets with simple rope-work along the edges.

She thanked him and left. Toda smelled tears on her as she hurried past.

"And what can I do for you."

"I borrowed money too," she said, and stepped to the counter.

"I don't remember that,"

She tried to call up a picture of the hobble, but all she could remember was the sight of the jeweller coming at her with a pair of snips, and the relief of having it off. She pushed that into his mind.

"Ah," he said, and went to a different cabinet, "I thought that was a buy, not collateral."

"Then you gave me too much silver and not enough iron and lead."

He looked taken aback, and weighed the metal in his hand, shaking it to re-measure density.

"At least, I expect it's worth more to me than it could be worth to anyone else."

He finished examining the end to find the iron core in the cabling then shrugged and put it on the counter.

She put two coins on the counter, he'd given her eight for it, but they were much bigger and of a heavier whiter metal.

He looked at them, and shook his head, retrieving the bit of paper he'd had wrapped around the hobble. He copied it into his book made some sort of calculation. He told her how much she owed. It was complicated. He pictured two white coins and two brown. He knew she'd be watching his mind and tried to think slowly and clearly for her.

She tried to look upset and put one more coin on the counter. He nodded, picked up all three, wrote something down in his book, calculated again, brought out her change, and pushed it and her hobble across the counter.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Where's your headband?" he asked, quietly but very firmly.

"I don't," she said.

He'd pictured a white band with red stripes and symbols. He knew she'd see what he was talking about. He knew that she had a secret, but he seemed confused about what kind of mind reader she was. She wasn't supposed to bring attention to herself, maybe she should pretend that she was the regular kind of mind reader, whatever that was.

"I don't have it right now," she said, "I need to go buy it, too."

"Ah," he seemed to hear, 'buy it back also' and seemed to feel even gentler toward her now.

"Thanks," she said again.

She bought some bread and some fruit, and walked toward the river, turned upstream and walked to the next village. By the time she arrived she wished she hadn't bought the fruit, there was tremendous amounts just ripening all along her path. On the other hand if she hadn't bought it to start with, she wouldn't have learned from the fruit vendor how to know when it was ripe, what signified high quality. And how to avoid the pieces with parasites in them.

Along the way she was startled to meet a rabbit shaped creature as large as her leg. Who had been equally startled by her approach. After a tense moment he scampered the rest of the way up the tree to what he must judge a safe lookout point and screamed at her, or to his friends about her.

She reached out to him and found his brain a bit on the small side, but very insistent on friendship. Once she'd brushed him with her travelsight. She found she couldn't disengage. When she tried, he would start screaming his song again and scamper a step closer along the only branch that led in her direction.

There was one method that would always force travelsight to disengage. So she picked a spot two paces closer to him and blinked there. He started and scampered back to the bole of the tree. She looked around again, nothing had changed since the creature had caught her by her travelsight. Nothing except that her travelstones were sitting two paces behind her on the path, instead of safely in their settings in her pocket.

She retrieved them and continued on her way. Along the way her thoughts wandered.

 _Am I really doing this?_ She thought, _Giving up on Asho or Lenni coming to take me home again, now that I'm unhobbled? Giving up on a world where I'm normal in exchange for a world where I'm exceptional. Where I'm lumped in with a suppressed group with a kind of mind reading that doesn't lend itself to travelsight at all. A group that is thought of in terms of their capabilities, and loyalties, instead of as people... not that that isn't exactly what I've been working toward all my life. But that was succeeding on merit, this is the risk of slavery or expulsion depending on how far I'm trusted to keep my travelsight out of other people's secrets._

 _And look where my loyalty and reliable hard work got me._

 _Disowned, imprisoned, enslaved, and now ... exiled, collected, gloated over, and ... wanted for breeding._

She passed the familiar stone wall and took the chance, she re-entered the garden where the travelbook had blinked her, and explored each alter until she found the travelbook for leaving again, it showed the royal looking kitchens she'd blinked through before. _Good. I have a way back, even if I have to argue and beg the guard, and admit to fleeing imprisonment. I can get home, and depending on whether Jergan cared more about his secrets or my imprisonment... once I'm back in Jergan's workshop, maybe I can blink across and out of the country before anyone recognizes the need for precautions._

She looked at the other book in that alter, it was not a journal, so much as... a bulletin board and to do list? She copied the style. "Asho & Lenni: Thanks for your help. I'll probably be in the capitol now and then, if Asho can't find me the regular way."

She signed it by her new designation: "Your friend and debtor, Toda of House Phrintha, courier."

She stood, and turned toward the gatehouse, sighed, and started on her way.

 **{End Chapter 1}**

4


	2. Ashokan isn't travellame after all

**Paying a debt**

Almost an hour of walking later she felt Asho's connection, _"What is wrong with these stupid stones?"_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"I can't reach Lenni or anyone else in this place without bumping into one of these travelstones that lie like... oooph, ouch. I hate this lying place and its so very stupidity hard secretive floors."_

 _"Asho, stop,"_

 _"Stop what exactly,"_

 _Stop swearing for one thing you do it weirdly, just like everything else. "Stop touching anything until you're sure it's a mind and not a reflection of the fact that you are searching,"_

 _"Umm, Alright,"_

 _"Second, you could listen to me invite you without actually blinking to me, can you still do that? Does that work on stones, or only on minds?"_

 _"I don't know,"_

 _"Well never mind that, You can check when you are somewhere that blinking won't drop you too far."_

 _"Good plan. How do I go about getting out of here?"_

 _"Normally you beg the soldiers guarding the trap, explaining that you weren't actually after whatever secret or treasure the trap or traps are protecting."_

 _"Alright,"_

 _"If there are soldiers guarding it."_

 _"Yeah, there are."_

 _"Well?"_

 _"They let me out the first time,"_

 _"Oh,"_

 _"And the second time they searched me, found the travelsight blindfold that Jergan gave me. They took that away from me and laughed at me falling into the trap again. I think they're just laughing at me now and not bothering to let me out, since they know I can't actually get home on my own, even if they did let me out."_

 _"Oh dear,"_

 _"Any suggestions?"_

 _"Any chance that they'd send for Jergan if you asked them?"_

 _"I don't know, I wondered about their accent earlier."_

 _"So you might be hours' blinking away from Jergan's. Hmm, can you try to talk to them again and let me hear it?"_

 _"I can try, what shall I say?"_

 _"Ask for your blinderclamp back because you want to sleep, preferably without getting dropped again."_

 _"Ugh... are there real people here who have to worry about that."_

 _"Yes, though usually it's only children under eight who blink out of bed, though usually houses or at least bedrooms are lined with brown travelstone to stop them from getting somewhere unexpected."_

 _"So they think I'm an idiot who can't ... walk straight, and I confirm it by asking for the blindfold in a way that says I'm untrainable. By the end of the week I'll seem so harmless they'll lock me up where I won't even be able to blink high enough to break my neck if I wanted to."_

 _"Thats the idea, only we want them to also send for Jergan... unless,"_

 _"Unless what?"_

 _"First go talk to them,"_

 _"Alright,"_

 _She heard him shouting, various things, in various tones of desperation._

 _"I haven't heard a word," he said, "though I thought I heard laughter once,"_

 _"Alright," she said, "Well anyway that can wait, do you want to try coming to me,"_

 _"What? Oh,"_

The connection vanished.

He sighed, not a full pace to the side.

"Thank you," he said, "I don't know why I didn't think of that,"

"Have you _ever_ blinked before today?"

"Not that I remember,"

"Have you ever blinked between... planets before the first time you fell in that trap?"

"No,"

"Then it's not surprising really," she said, "You just learned the wrong lesson."

"What?"

"The trap, getting stuck it in taught you the wrong lesson. The lesson for you isn't 'don't blink between planets,' I think it is: don't blink anywhere near the planet where Jergan's bindry is."

"Ah," he frowned, "or maybe don't blink _toward_ it."

 _Perhaps?_

"So," he said after a moment, "While I've been dropping myself repeatedly, all afternoon? You've done what? Decided to take your travelstones with you?"

"I spent the morning, blinking to the capitol, finding work, blinking back, and am going to mail my travelstones to my employer."

"Oh," he said, "well done,"

"Thanks,"

"So you haven't had trouble with the language?"

"Not very much, they recognize that my accent is off, but so far I haven't been unable to understand anyone, or vice-versa."

"Good,"

"Yes, I think I'll be happy here."

"Good," he said again, "Uuh, where are we?"

"We're heading somewhere between south, and down hill. Whichever way the paths seem most willing to lead. There's a village up ahead that is on the river, where I'm hoping there are boats that will take on mail."

"Can you give me directions how to get back to our landing spot or the prayer garden?"

"I... thought I could but ... maybe from the village over there," she pointed back and slightly off to her right, toward the village where she'd sold the metal from the hobble, and bought breakfast.

"I can find the villages," he said after a moment, "but not the melon grove... without people in it."

"Yeah,"

"Any other ideas?"

"Is there anyone else you can look for besides Lenni, since he's probably still too dangerously close to travelstone traps,"

"Hmm," he said, "Maybe Aledni,"

He stopped walking. Toda stopped and turned to watch him.

He turned slightly and lifted his head at an odd angle.

She concentrated, took careful control of her blinking reflex and focused on him, while he looked and searched through myriad minds, some closer than she could sense, some farther away than she could comprehend, most in directions she was certain she didn't believe existed. Except they might be necessary to explain how she was here and not working in Jergan's book bindry.

 _"Hello,"_

 _"Ashokan?" replied a mind younger than his, "Turning scraps into potholders today, since not all of us are Ifna,"_

 _"Good choice of colors on that one."_

 _"Thanks. What are you up to this afternoon?"_

 _"I'm lost in Eth_ _Äddainakhas, and I was wondering if I may come there,"_

 _"Of course you may, don't you mean can you come here? Because if you're lost how are you going to ..."_

Asho waved to Toda, and smiled.

 _"Like this,"_ and he was gone.

Her connection still could not stay anchored to someone while they blinked, she still didn't know how Asho's travelsight could be so different.

When she reached her destination, she bought the smallest crates she could find, and filled them with dried fruit. She buried a travel stone in each and carried them to the docks to get help shutting them and addressing them properly.

The shipper wanted more to ship each of them than she thought she was supposed to be willing to pay, she tried to dicker, but he crossed his arms and said she could go talk to ship captains herself, if she could find any that were going the directions her boxes needed to go. She'd been watching his mind and saw how much dickering he expected to use to keep the fare where he thought it belonged, but that she wouldn't know what that was.

Well, now she knew what fares to ask for, but she also knew that there weren't boats going up river as far as she needed, nor any going down river and back up the other branch. She had to convince a captain to drop it off in the correct village with enough money attached to transport it back up stream the other way. Only a few companies and a few big houses shipped things that way. And the man who faced her knew she wasn't wearing house livery.

"Does Phrintha have an account here?"

"Not with me, but with someone in the village I'm sure."

"You should be spending just under one of these," she put two of her master's coins on the table between them.

He opened his mouth to protest.

"And you want one of these for your trouble." she put down two of the medium sized coins, that she thought was silver but wasn't sure because it was too small for her to be comfortable that she was accurately estimating it's density.

He shut his mouth and nodded.

"And you're asking for even more because you're not willing to take a loss."

He nodded.

She put a third of her master's coins on the table.

She separated the five coins, "These two send the packages, these two are yours now. This one you deposit to Phrintha's credit once you've sent them, along with half of what you don't spend on sending these."

He opened his mouth.

"I'll check in a month or two, but I don't have time to stay here." she continued

"Let me get this straight." he said, "This is mine," he slid the silver coins to his side of the table. "This pays for the capital city package," he slid the next coin to the side, "if it costs more, the extra comes from here, he tapped the center coin, "if it costs less I get to keep half of the leftover."

"Half the leftover from this," she tapped just the gold coin on the end.

"And the same for the other package."

"Yes," she tapped the coin on the other end.

"So you reward me for dickering on your behalf, but allow for cost overruns, without rewarding me for worrying that cost overruns might happen."

"Yes,"

"Fine," he said and scooped all the money up and placed it on a shelf behind him, then moved the crates onto the floor in the next room. _"Pleasure doing business with you,"_

"I expect," he said, returning to the table and began writing a receipt. "They should arrive in about a month, could be as little as two weeks, if they don't have to wait on the dock too long."

"Alright,"

"Are you sure you're from house Phrintha not Thris?"

"I'm not telling anyone where Phrintha got me from."

"Hmph, how were you planning on checking that I deposited the correct amount into Phrintha's accounts?"

"How closely do you keep track of your receipts?"

She saw that he normally just piled them up in a crate, most of them anyway, and hoped the package got delivered, if not, and someone investigated, they would be all neatly in age order from the bottom to the top, but he'd hate to go digging for one.

"And anyway, you'll be careful to remember, since I'm going to come back and check in a month or so."

"Careful to remember?" he said.

How was she supposed to say _I'm a mind reader? Oh yes_ , but she was in violation of the rules.

She looked at the floor and rubbed her forehead, "Master hasn't fixed my headband yet."

"Ah," his respect for her changed size and color, "Yes, I'll remember," if it means saving digging through a month's stack of receipts. " _And you'd better have it on when you come back."_

"I will," she said, "I hope I'll have it by then,"

"Alright then," he straightened up and slid the paper to her.

"Thanks," she said and took it.

 **Remedial Social Dynamics**

Outside she walked upstream until she was in the trees again and felt ahead until she found council-member Phrintha's mind. She blinked to him and held out what was left of his money and the shipping receiptHe and examined the shipping receipt.

"I promised to come back in a month to make sure he'd found boats for each." he nodded, "And that I'd be wearing a proper headband when I came."

"Oh, yes. That would be wise." He stood and motioned for her to follow him. He led down the hall and up some stairs and around a corner into the room where they'd talked before.

"I was lucky this time," she said handing over what was left of her change, "but I should learn the values of your coins, and especially their names."

He blinked, "You really are from another place. I had not thought properly about that. I'm sorry."

She shrugged. After a moment's consideration she pulled out the last two coins from selling the hobble the first time.

"These are yours?" he asked in verification. So he had been reading her mind, then again he'd implied most of the mind readers couldn't help it.

"I got them selling stolen government property," she said, picturing the remains of the hobble.

He nodded, "Don't make a habit of that,"

"If I hadn't been wrongfully convicted..." she started, and he made a motion with his hand that he seemed to know meant _stop immediately!_ She'd never seen it before but tried to memorize it.

"Our government on the other hand owns one building in this city, and a militia parade ground in every village larger than two thousand people,"

"That's all?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, "the people own the rest, their villages protect them from criminals, and their houses protect them from fraud."

"Who protects the villages and the houses?"

"They ought to settle their own differences, and usually do but if they can't the villages can appeal to the warlord-general, the houses appeal to the council of houses."

"Hmm,"

"The warlord-general also leads the militias into war, if needed, as well as any house guards that wish to follow him. The council of houses also provides a forum for houses to beg for, plan, and donate towards infrastructure projects that each deems beneficial for it's own interests."

"So there's no taxes?"

"Some villages have a tax, some don't. Some houses have a tax and others ignore you until you cost it money, and then they invoice you for that amount, and may enslave you for whatever portion you don't or can't pay."

"What?"

"In some parts of the country, it's a very good deal, no taxes mean more to invest in whatever your business is. In other parts of the country, getting enslaved and dragged off to your house's council for non-payment might be the cheapest possible boat ride to a much better place to find work and money, or even food."

"What about Phrintha?"

"Phrintha charges very little tax, so we have a reputation in the capital for being a much poorer house. You'll notice my home is decorated with polished wood, not copper or lead, definitely not gold."

"My father-in-law's house on the other hand, where you sent the other crate, has copper everywhere that it's strong enough, and where it's not, the iron is decorated one way or another."

"So the house members may be very wealthy, but the house doesn't take... doesn't try to take more than it needs?"

"Yes."

"Hmm,"

"And now," he said rising from his desk, "I think that you're about as hungry as I am."

She nodded, and followed him through a door disguised as a wood panel, down a narrow staircase, through an empty kitchen and into a half stocked pantry. He offered her jar of a dried fruit she hadn't met yet, and picked up a large pot a quarter full of soup.

"I usually eat my soup cold," he whispered conspiratorially, "before the servants and my wife get here, and start hosting all sorts of events."

Couriers weren't picky when it came to food temperature, cold meant she could down it faster and be on her way again, "What kinds of events?"

"Parties, feasts, games, dances, whatever may make sense. Events where the council-members from different houses can find each other and talk about nothing often enough that no one can tell when they are talking about important things, like fraud cases that must be decided soon, or how much benefit will come from this project or that project, and 'won't you try to convince your house to tax itself to support my project, or at least ask your house's council to inform your house members that they are welcome to make donations towards it.' And other such things."

"That sounds exciting, or tedious, or..."

"Both by turns, when not both at the same time?"

"Yes."

"You are correct."

"I've always much rather be the one carrying letters and gifts from one end of the country to the other in a day and a half, rather than sitting all day waiting for a letter to be read, argued over and its reply written and argued over and re-written."

"That does sound preferable, the way it looks in your mind."

"Sometimes I'd stop at the last big city before a package's destination and pretend I needed a meal or a nap, so that someone else would go the last blink or three, and I could be sent on with the next letter as soon as I'd finished, rather than sit and wait in a small village where the only royal correspondence for weeks would be the reply to the letter I'd just brought."

"That suggests a strong but slightly twisted work ethic."

"Yes, sir,"

"That's it? No justification?"

"Sure, my justification is that I was the fastest in the kingdom. And very good endurance too. If I was stuck for three days waiting for a reply. The courier who was not stuck would probably only deliver half or three quarter's as much mail as I would, in the same time."

"And you're conviction?"

"I was innocent, now of course I'm guilty of fleeing the country, having my hobble removed, and soliciting work from an organization who does not have a formalized agreement to deliver my pay to the warden tasked with tracking my debt and releasing me when it's paid."

"Right,"

"Usually of course those are accomplished in the opposite order, but I met some interesting friends."

"Who helped you flee far beyond any hope of pursuit."

"When you're discussing the fastest courier in at least two nations, hope of pursuit would have been zero. I think however, I'm possibly even beyond fear of pursuit."

"Yes," he set down two bowls and spoons and sank onto the bench where he most often sat when there was no one to catch him eating below stairs. "I must say, your bragging does not improve your reputation of loyalty."

"I'm not bragging, I was making sure you had the explanation of the things I'm sure you can find in my memories." she said, "I was the best. I tried to make the best use of myself for my king that I could. I was innocent. I was convicted in spite of giving all the loyalty and service that I knew how. I was going to live the rest of my life without ever blinking again. And then two children took pity on me, one with wise eyes and inhuman strength, and another half travelblind and half travellame who had to be hobbled to keep from blinking into the air whenever his reach accidentally brushed a travelstone that was not set within a leg's distance of the floor."

"And both who had access to books that travel farther than travelstones ever ought?"

"I suppose," _"Travelstones pull, those books push, it's the people who travel, not that it matters, are you even listening to me here at the moment."_

"So, even if I am to believe that your loyalty isn't irreparably damaged by living a year hobbled," he said, "you keep reminding me that you could steal anything from anyone in the world, and even if you were seen doing so, no one could catch you, or at least no one could hope to catch you without a dragnet of linked emoi blanketing not just the nation, but the whole globe?"

Toda started, "I'm not used to thinking in terms of the whole globe being hobbled, except me. That's why ... you didn't want me to let anyone know what I could do!"

"How many have you told?"

"Just a council-member for Thris,"

"Why?"

"Thris was the first House I was recommend to check for work. He listened longer than any except you. The other two council-member's I tried assumed I meant that I was emoi, and would not even consider me for the position exactly because I had applied for it."

"Of course. Let me see, there may be some way of making him keep quiet. Or maybe if we just keep you out of sight, he'll forget eventually."

She nodded.

"Well never mind that for now. We have enough to worry about already, you need a headband, maybe more than one, and livery-of-the-House. And a place to sleep, actually that may be first on the list. Can you draw?"

"Well enough to make the maps you want?"

"Yes,"

"I expect so, I used to help my brother, until my schooling was finished. He learned he could blink high into the air and look down, then blink back to the ground and draw what he saw, he was already the best map maker in the province before I graduated. It was while learning to help him that I discovered that the higher I blinked the farther around the bulge of the planet I could see, and so the farther I could go each blink."

"So were you fastest because you could go farther each blink, or because you could blink more rapidly."

"Both, and the two multiplied, also I could blink more times before I needed to take a break and that could multiply again, depending on where my schedule overlapped the next courier that I might could hand off to."

"And now it's all irrelevant because you can blink anywhere on the planet in a single blink?"

She paused, "I think so. I haven't actually tried to blink to the far side yet." _Just seen to the far side and been surprised to find minds big enough to belong to people, but that live under the sea._

"Alright, we need to get you calibrated, and figure out the best way to use your talents for everyday tasks. Also make up the most accurate lie we can manage for your headband."

She could see him adding details to his idea of trying to communicate with her travelsight only and never needing her to blink.

"We should also visit the house council seat, and determine if the breeding program contains any young men you find eligible."

"Breeding program?" she coughed, and put down her spoon.

The council-member giggled. _He just giggled! At me or at his own joke?_

"We're not a rich enough house to have a _real_ breeding program. There is a joke that the council is the breeding program and the breeding program is the council. It's half true. It's more true if you assume that the most gifted in any particular area is trained for and eventually appointed to that duty. Myself as an example. Those who are not chosen for a particular duty, stay behind to run the council, like my brother. Or eventually choose a career, albeit one with strong ties to the house's honor, and probably the council's knowledge base too. My father-in-law as an example."

"So it's more like, 'let us find you the best possible husband so that you'll breed the best possible kids?' Rather than 'we're going to give you to six possible husbands, so that when you've raised your family to old enough for us to see how each turned out, and it's too late to have any more anyway; we'll yell at each other about why you weren't allowed to just have the one who fathered the best child?"

The council-member had the decency to shudder.

"We can't afford a real program," he said again, "But Please, please don't talk when the topic comes up. Just choose and let me know, and let me talk. If you remind them how valuable your talent is someone will try to bully you into agreeing to things that I think you won't like, at least not long term. If you remind them how easily you can run away, someone will take it as a threat and it could cost you your reputation if not your life."

She blinked, and dug deeper into his mind, _Say that again?_

He did. She found many concepts about how to expect someone would think if they were trying to think in a way that could be labelled 'loyal.' she found other things, and a couple memories of his close family members.

"So," she said when she thought she understood each of these ideas, and pushed them into a tower labelled 'thinking like a house' "So when it comes up, I pretend that there is no breeding program, because there is no breeding program that will affect me unless I choose to submit to it. I pretend that I'm just wanting to be introduced to all the eligible young men, because I want one. Which is also true. And I don't talk about why my talents are valuable, at most I remember that you said they were valuable, and that I think that means you will get me anything I want. I don't think about how my talents make me difficult to control, I think about how loyal I am because Phrintha fed me, when all the other houses chased me away?"

"Good," he said, "Better than I had hoped."

"I'll try," she said, "I don't know how well I can control what I think."

"Practice," he said, "If it makes you feel better, but mostly don't worry. We'll take care of each other."

" _I am loyal,_ " she thought as she lay that night in the room that would belong to the cook staff, as soon as they arrived, _"not to House Phrintha, but to council-member Phrintha. He reminds me of master Jergan, who respected me in spite of my conviction. Except Phrintha sees both me and my talent. I respected Jergan as a employer, but never like this. I haven't respected anyone like this since ... not since I believed that my talent and my service would get me recognized by my king."_

 _"And council-member Phrintha is a very important man. Maybe as important as anyone in this city, except for the warlord-general, but I'm not even sure what power he has."_

 _"I hope I'm not setting myself up for more disappointment. But council-member Phrintha already knows me. The king never noticed me, not for my service, not when I was accused or wrongly convicted."_

 _"To bad Asho isn't in the list of eligible young men, or Lenni either. What am I thinking? Lenni is too old and both of them are too small. Actually I bet both of them are too young. And Asho already likes that Aledni girl, and Lenni talks about Ngirran and Deliah all the fevered time."_

 **Aftermaths**

"Wait, what?" said Aledni.

"Hello," he said again, this time aloud.

"Buh-?" He watched her focus on him. Intrigued again that unlike Toda's focus he couldn't feel her when she anchored, unless she chose to send him thoughts or sensations.

Sharissa sat up straight staring at him, "There a book pointed to the butchering middle of the room; is? why? where?" he only understood because Aledni did.

"Hello, Ashokan," said Eegan, wandering over. "Your art is finally waking up I see."

"I guess,"

She patted Sharissa on the back and whispered, "We've been expecting that Ashokan would become able to visit people he knows without a book. Just as Ifna is strong and Aledni can see and hear from eyes and ears that don't belong to her."

Sharissa glanced at Aledni, then to Eegan, "What about me?"

"What about you?"

"What will I be able to do?"

"I have no idea," said Eegan, "I rescued you because you were being mistreated, not for what you could do, or might become able to do in the future. It was the same with Ifna recuing Aledni, or my brother rescuing Ashokan."

"Oh,"

"What were you doing in EthÄddainakhas?" said Aledni.

"Umm, rescuing myself from a trap where I was before that."

"What sort of trap?" said Eegan.

"One that forcefully made me practice what I'd just barely learned how to do."

"I didn't know that was possible."

"I been warned about them but I didn't understand ... couldn't have understood before I learned how to travel."

"Ah, Are you alright?"

Aledni moved her focus, from Sharissa to Ashokan.

"Just bruises I think. I'm really tired of being dropped."

 _"Do you want to wash up?"_ thought Aledni _, "Tlinthra has the best places for that, and I don't think anyone has been washing anything since yesterday afternoon."_

"That's alright," said Ashokan, "I need to get back before Lenni and the others start worrying where I've been."

 _"So no one suspects you of ... Playing Adda,"_ thought Aledni, _"Oh, I'm so proud of you."_

 _"Thanks, Lenni helped."_

"Alright, good bye," said Aledni, "Feel free to ask me again, any time you get stuck or lost,"

"Yeah, Thanks,"

"I'm glad I could help."

And he was off.

 **{End Chapter 2}**

6


	3. Diplomacy or the lack thereof

**Meeting someone even more alien**

The feast seemed to be of the opinion that it was going well. And Toda was beginning to respect its opinion, though she didn't yet count herself experienced enough to have an opinion of her own on that topic. The opinions that she did have were less ambitious: that the food was excellent and that she had met several interesting people. And there seemed to be eight times as many left to meet.

Just now word of her foreignness seemed to be travelling faster than she could manage to process and remember names. So far she'd tried to deal with the onslaught by exchanging niceties and then pointedly requesting to be permitted to meet only one or two persons at a time. Gradually she noticed that the whole party (and the seating for it) was arranged into neighbouring rings surrounded by concentric belts. It took her only a bit longer confirm her mental map of the intensity of the loudness of voices of the partiers and realize that whoever had prepared for the feast had anticipated four foci: food, fighting, dancing, and illusion casting. The seating had been arranged accordingly, like ripples in a pond.

The performers and dancers would be at the areas cleared for their use. And circling out from them would be their audiences. But the fighting was would be last if any even happened tonight. And the illusion casting was only just starting. So the crowd was not evenly spread around the four foci, but the conversations that were happening seemed to already match the contour intended for it.

She opened her travelsight and brushed the courtyard as lightly as possible. A few of the most sensitive looked up but she was among friends and neither pried nor was suspected of doing so. The self sorting that people had done became apparent. The people who liked the loud frivolous conversations were closer to the center. The people who preferred the quieter, more intense conversations were at the fringes, where they could hear and be heard without needing to shout over the louder conversations at the center.

There were two minds that didn't fit the pattern.

A loud somewhat chatty one who sat alone at the far side of the circle watching for the illusion casting to start in earnest. And Chairman of Phrinth, the feast's host, currently stood near the center of the buffet checking on level of supplies laid out and instructing a cook's helper what more was to be made available. He was one of the sensitives who had looked up earlier, and he looked up again.

"Miss Toda, do you wish assistance?" his voice carried to her through her link and she presumed that he would not ask such a question before he'd established his own link in the other direction, though she could not sense his link.

"I apologise, I had not meant to interrupt," she said.

"That is not what I asked," a gentle rebuke for wasting his time with an apology for wasting his time. Or a joke.

"I was just answering frivolous a question I had about how the seating was arranged," she said, "but I did have a technical question about Ethenoin dress."

"You do realize that a third of the guests are foreigners by birth and no one should be offended should you proclaim both ignorance and an intent to learn."

"Yes, I realize," she said, "but the nature of the question ..."

"Say no more, you can recognize my wife?" he sent her an image anyway.

"Yes, Chairman Phrinth."

"Join her," he said, "I'll return shortly. Though you're welcome to request her instruction instead. You can trust her discretion as long as you bother to request such."

"Thank you, Chairman."

She found the Reader of Phrinth and went to her.

"Good evening, Miss Toda was it?"

"It is," said Toda, Courier of Phrinth, though she was the first true courier in the three nations, so no one was permitted to know her function, "The Chairman suggested that you or he would be able to answer my question without broadcasting to everyone how ignorant I am."

"Oh, quite," said the Reader, "I'd be happy to help, assuming I myself know the answer."

Toda sighed, "In my country, excuse me, in my _native_ country, children below a certain age wear slave necklaces indicating who is responsible for their upkeep, and their small crimes, and where to bring them back should they travel alone and become lost."

The Reader looked thunderstruck. "How barbaric!" she mouthed, but at the last syllable she seemed to reconsider, "I see," said the Reader, and glanced around, there were no children present, except for one cook's assistant who had a child in a sling across his front.

"Children above a certain age have their ears pierced, and silver wire strung through the way I wear mine."

The Reader glanced at her ears and back to her face, "and you're about to tell me the significance?"

"When my people marry the wire is bent into a circle instead, indicating a closed link, no connection sought."

"Off the market," said the Reader, "I understand."

"In neighboring countries things are done differently. The barbarians to the south will weld the circle closed. In the supercorporation to our northeast, officers to a corporation are owned by it just as much as its slaves, therefore the mother and father also wear slave necklaces exactly the same as their children. In both countries the most time consuming step in dissolving a corporation is distributing the corporation's property and responsibilities among the corporation's owners."

"Yes, of course," said the Reader, "I believe I understand enough of the picture. What is your question?"

"Are there similar indicators of corporate status here and how are they worn?"

"We have slave bracelets, as you know."

Toda nodded.

"And we have the Houses, and the liveries to advertise them for those of us who are employed by them."

"Right," Toda agreed.

"And hat pins to advertise membership, for those who are proud of, or especially in need of the protection of theirs."

"Right," Toda agreed.

"And we have local jurisdictions," said the Reader, "here in your own House's capitol the two are one and you don't have to worry about it as much. If you were in a foreign House's capitol it would be the same for you as if you were in any other village, except the speed at which you could be apprehended and charged with ... House crimes instead of or in addition to village crimes."

"Understandable," said Toda even though she didn't really understand the difference yet. On the other hand, she couldn't really be apprehended, though she didn't want to go advertising that fact too widely.

"Beyond that I don't think we _have_ corporations," said the Reader, "in fact I think the closest thing we have is estates and the slaves and/or executors of such."

"Oh, dear," said Toda, and rubbed her head. And knocked off her headband, white with green stripes. Normal headbands were white with red stripes and had idealised icons of the sense organs the wearer could borrow or share with others. A few had green slashes crossing out a few of the red icons. Which seemed to mean, 'I'm this much stronger at borrowing when I'm trying / concentrating hard enough,'

Toda had been given three headbands. One with nothing but green stripes. One normal one with red stripes and three each of every red icon, but every single icon had a green slash, because unlike the local mind readers, if she didn't try, she didn't borrow any senses. And last a headband with green stripes and the same icons but in green. If she ever had to get it re-done she intended to have the icons done in Phrinth olive and the slashes done in Phrinth green. She thought it would be an amusing profession of loyalty, no House liveries used headband red or white. Though a few villages used one or the other.

Toda straightened her headband and looked up, "so, how is marriageability and such things signalled?"

The Reader shrugged, "The House doesn't concern itself with such things. Acknowledged children of House members may choose to between their parents Houses when they come of age. Or apply for membership of any other House for that matter."

"Alright but how do the local governments-"

"Local jurisdictions," corrected the Reader when Toda paused to look for vocabulary to translate the words she wanted, "I don't think we have these governments you seem to expect."

"How do local jurisdictions, keep track of marriage?"

"They don't," said the Reader, "The people themselves keep track, if they wish. Most villages are small enough that they can remember all that and more about their members. And besides the local jurisdiction just as House doesn't care who you buy or sell, lend or rent, give or receive or share, your property to. As long as you and they are in agreement the House has no interest. If you do disagree but have no contract to refer back to. What can the House do? No, only the large villages and rich families need contracts to keep track of their business."

"Hmm," said Toda.

"Show me why you're asking such things, I imagine ..."

Toda did her best.

"You're concerned with accidentally making offers of, (what do you call it?) adultery," The reader snorted, "make any offer you want or request anything you want, it is the person with contracts to the contrary who holds the responsibility to tell you they are not available, they are the ones under contract not you."

"Certainly," said Toda, "but... perhaps someday I will be the one under contract."

"And do you imagine that you won't love the chance to point across the room and say, I'm sorry to disappoint you, _that_ one is mine!"

Toda giggled. And realized that the Reader had in fact pointed across the courtyard to the Chairman making his way toward them. Then she didn't know whether to laugh harder or bow in respect to a point made.

The point was well made in either case. And it hinted at another aspect of the situation. That Senior Speaker of Phrintha had hinted at earlier. That Toda herself was a rare catch, a very rare catch in deed. Her rare talent and the true meaning of her green headband would be a closely guarded secret for as many generations as could be managed.

It also meant that she and her descendants wouldn't be permitted to breed outside the House for several generations. So long as she had anything to say about it, the talent would never serve House Thriss, no, maybe not _never_ , maybe twelve generations and until it made a formal apology to her estate. Should she manage to be wealthy enough to create an estate that could last that long, or even enforce anything like that. Maybe six generations was a better match for the crime. Of not knowing what the heck she was her first day here.

She smirked. She wasn't generally the vindictive sort, but ... she had the feeling Thriss was the only House out there who ought to have either believed her or requested permission to probe whether she believed herself. They had done neither, they had asked her to leave. And for as long as she could enforce it, that request would be honoured. The couriers of Phrintha would never carry message or material for Thriss until they recognized their mistake and repented and begged. Maybe until they weakened and ceased to be a House? Or ... or unless they swore a fealty alliance of some sort to House Phrintha.

She cut off the thought. She didn't really expect to have the power to control all of her own children, let alone her decendants for six generations.

Not having the services of couriers wouldn't bring Thriss or any other House to their knees, there was after all the emoi networks. And several Houses were known to have a way to safely encrypt messages before sending them on such.

No, her fantasies were just that, and they probably didn't even match how House politics were likely to play out or even how they were capable of playing out.

"Does house Phrintha have especial enemies I ought to be alert for?" said Toda.

"Not especially," said the Reader.

"What in Our Drainage Basin _have_ you been discussing?" said the Chairman.

"Clothing and accessories and status," said the Reader and turned back to Toda, "are you worried about whether adding a house pin might make you a target?"

"No," said Toda, and contemplated hiding her thoughts, she would be somewhat unsurprised to learn that the Chairman had been listening to her thoughts since they'd first spoken across the room earlier.

"The speaker of Thriss managed to annoyed me in an unusually short period of time," she said, "I'm fighting the urge to maintain a grudge. Sometimes I have trouble not assuming his whole House might be as bad."

"I don't know Thriss myself," said the Chairman, "But our Speaker has many times mentioned that he is remarkably sane and easy to work with. What exactly did he do to annoy you?"

Toda opened her mouth, then realized what she was about to say and bit her lip, then changed her mind said it anyway. "Unlike the others, he listened to me," she said, "long enough to get my hopes up."

"Dear me," said the Reader, "how rude."

Toda was sure that they were laughing at her. And that they were right. And that they were somehow able to block her from observing the fact through her sight.

"Sorry to bother you," she said and stalked off.

She was unsurprised to find herself seated on the remote side of the circle set aside for the illusion casters, right next to the other person who seemed to want to be alone.

"Good evening," he said.

"It is a pretty evening," she agreed, "and the food was good."

He snorted.

She looked at him. His clothes were ... a bit worse for the wear but they seemed to be heavy duty livery and he seemed to be of the same mold.

"What brings you here?" she said.

"An invitation from our illustrious Chairman?" he said.

"Me too," she smirked, "I know why my duties demand that I attend, but it would help if I knew a bit more about the culture."

"Then you're asking the correct person," he said, "what do you need to know."

"Is there an easy way to know who's married and who isn't?"

"Ask? Watch?" he said, "what kind of question is that?"

"In some countries I've been to they wear earrings in two different forms, or make slave tags from jewellery metals or wore jewellery at all."

"Dear me," he said, "what's wrong with just asking?"

"It could get tedious, going around and asking everyone at the whole party?"

"No doubt," he said, "is that why ... your eyes always dart to the side and look at people's ears and necks when they first try to talk to you?"

"Probably," she said.

"You know it makes you look furtive to these people?"

"No," she said, "I just knew that they think I seem that way. It makes me feel furtive somehow. Which is annoying, I'd never been furtive before."

"Before what?"

"Wrongful conviction, wrongful enslavement, and escape."

"And you doubt that you might be a little furtive after that, and with good reason?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"So don't," he agreed and stretched.

"Are _you_ always so furtive?"

"I'm not furtive," he said and recrossed his arms, "I'm standoffish."

She laughed, "I suppose," when she'd first arrived she'd thought this language was the same as home. But after several months here she would classify it as _eerily_ similar. There was no word for 'standoffish,' in her native land. The closest might be 'travelprone,' which was closer to shy than to ...

"Why standoffish, and not sitoffish?" she asked.

He snorted again, "because they didn't consult _me_ when they made the language," he said.

He made it sound like it was one of the bigger insults anyone had payed him lately. She laughed again, "do you have any _more recent_ grudges?"

He snorted, then he laughed, too. "Oh, I don't know," he temporised, "there have been some petty annoyances here and there, very few as big as that."

"Alright," she said.

"How about you?" he said.

She recounted her recent conversation with the Reader.

He had the decency to laugh aloud.

"So what is this thing he didn't listen about?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," she said, "secret House business, the chairman or the speaker can tell you about it if they think they should."

"Fair enough," he said.

"What about you?" she said, "What do you do for our house?"

"I'm the resident foreigner." He said.

"There seem to be a lot of those," she said, "Which seems odd to me, I though this was supposed to be the ruling council, representatives of important House families, business ventures, and a few foreign guests. It seems like a third or more of the guests are foreign."

"I'm not certain you know what a House is," he said, "but no matter, what are you trying to say?"

"I was just trying to say, I imagine I am the most foreign person here, and you don't even look foreign."

"Ah," he said, "in what way are you the most foreign?"

"Umm," she said, "I am the farthest from where I was born." _What else could I mean?_

"Ah," he said, "but you at least are human?"

"I assume so," she said, "are there those here who are not?"

"I sit before you," he said, "and though I am human, my mind is more used to forming thoughts after the mode of the esquirrenrenoi."

"The what?"

He turned to stare at her, "a small forest creature," he said, he held out his hands at various distances to indicate a creature the size of her thigh. "Omnivorous, Arboreal, a small percentage of their population appear to be emoi, after their own fashion."

"Do they make a noise like," and she tried to give a call that she only half remembered.

He chuckled, "you do that very well, yes that was two common calls. One of friendship and hmm one of claiming property and warning away others."

His face was red.

She looked away and saw that many others were staring at them and muttering.

"What did I just do?"

"You just screamed to the council of the third most powerful House, that they'd better stay away from your new treasure. Enough of them are emoi that they've been tracked down by pet esquirrenren in the past. It's one of their most common calls. So common in fact that the creatures are named after the call."

Toda glanced around again. This time her face was red.

"I just called myself selfish not in human speech but with the call of a creature that is renowned for it's selfishness?"

"Basically," he said.

"Dear me," she sighed.

"A more interesting question," he said, "where did you hear the first call?"

"I startled and was startled by one on my first trip alone through the woods."

"And it or you brushed minds?" he said.

"Yes," she said.

"How long ago?" he said.

"About two months,"

"And you don't still have it with you?" he said.

"I managed to let go of it," she said.

"Impressive," he said, "They usually don't let go until the next rut season."

"Hmm," she said.

"They tend to hold onto things until they've eaten them or found something more interesting to hold onto. When the thing in question is a mind bigger than their own, well, they hold on until it's time to use that sense to search out a compatible mate instead of an interesting conversation partner ... for whatever value they might have for what they consider conversation."

"And you deal with them all the time?" she said.

"Yes," he said.

"And you're terse sometimes because you're used to keeping things simple for them?"

"That's part of it," he agreed.

"And the rest of it?"

"Keeping things simple enough for humans is a different exercise," he said, "but no less trouble."

 _Translating not between multiple languages but between multiple thought patterns... brain patterns._

"Alright," she said.

"You're not insulted?" he said.

"I know four languages," she said, "five if you count both dialects that I know of this language."

"But you don't count them as two languages?"

"The thought patterns behind the differences are bigger than the differences in the language itself."

"Ah," he said, "and what bearing does that have?"

"I've translated between two languages before, I understand that some things can be communicated in multiple languages but must be stated in such a way that if you tried to compare you wouldn't say that the two statements were translations of each other but two completely separate texts that both attempted to teach the same thing."

"Hmm," he said, "yes something like that."

"Anyway," she said. He stiffened. She looked up. The Reader was approaching.

"So who do I congratulate?" she smirked.

"Oh, nothing like that," he said, "she was verifying she knew which animal I was referring to."

"That is the lamest excuse I can imagine," said the Reader, "No one would believe it."

"Alright," he said, "tell them she wanted translations for the calls she'd heard."

"Better," said the Reader, and her eyebrows twitched. She turned to Toda, "did he give you a translation?"

"He said the second one is their property claim call, and showed me that they are named after it. I hadn't noticed the similarities before that."

"And he didn't tell you what the first one means or what it means in combination with the other?"

"We were part way through that-" started Toda, and the pieces started coming together. Friendship? Property claim, warning, holding onto a mind link for more than a month? Rut season? And finally 'Are congratulations in order?'

"Oh dear," said Toda and covered her face.

He snorted, the Reader patted her shoulder, "never mind, dear. Just don't be surprised if people steer clear of the two of you for a month or two."

"Oh dear," said Toda, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said, "I value my privacy."

But his mind was one of the chatty ones, not one of the quiet off-to-the-side ones. But ... perhaps he preferred to chat with his esquirrenrens and leave humans alone. Or perhaps he was being polite, softening the blow.

Or perhaps not, he had been a bit abrasive earlier. Was he generally abrasive or merely on first contact to keep people away when he was feeling ... standoffish.

The Reader snorted and wandered off.

"Good riddance," he muttered.

"Be nice," she said.

"Alright," he said, then muttered, "Thank Avanu."

She tisked but said nothing more.

"Are _you_ going to be alright?" he said.

She shuddered.

"Miss, 'House secret,' are you alright?" he said.

"I have no idea," she said, "I'm a stranger here and I have no way to calculate my status or my reputation. Or whether either will survive my foolishness or ... did I just propose to you?"

"Yes," he said.

Toda moaned.

"After a fashion," he said, "not a proposal of marriage, more like a demand that we spend the next several months emoi-tethered and sharing life until we have to go our separate ways to marry for real with actually compatible mates."

"So there's a different call for breeding propositions?"

"Several score." He said, "I presume you don't wish me to begin teaching them to you in present company?"

"Dear me, no!" she said.

He was silent a moment and let her come to herself.

"Miss, House secret, do you have a real name? Mine is Elthanmoi."

"Toda," she said.

"Toda," he said, "or was that T®da?"

"The first," she said, "how did you say the second again?"

He repeated it.

"Does my accent make you want to say it that way?" she said.

"No," he said, "but after insisting that you're a foreigner, people will expect you mean from the north or north west. Either of those accents will be more likely to use the ® sound."

"Oh," she said.

Once the illusion casting was over he suggested they mix with the rest of the crowd in order to give the lie to her earlier faux pas. She agreed. When the conversations began to move quickly and surround them she used her travelsight to watch his mind cope with the onslaught. Which it did, after a fashion. At least _he_ was relaxed, and believed himself to be fluent. Though he was less fluent than anyone else she'd connected to here.

He noticed her connection but did not rebuke her. In fact he seemed amused, perhaps even reassured.

She didn't know why until a week later when she met his charges. Their emoi range seemed to be only a score or two paces in diameter but he welcomed their connections and seemed to exert some sort of control over them.

And his mind could deal with all of them at once. And her connection as well.

Though when he was dealing with his esquirrenren he kept his thoughts shaped to theirs. After about three hours Toda believed that she understood most of their calls.

She took to spending her free time near him. He often could explain ethenoin culture to her much better than the Speaker or the Chairman could. And he so enjoyed ripping apart problems and showing her all the parts.

Sometimes she tried to propose better solutions, and he'd rip them apart with equal glee, generally proving that her outsider's view was providing her with answers that were both logical and perhaps more efficient in one way or another than the current system, but also that they didn't take into account some important part of human nature. Or they strayed too far outside some tradition or other, some of which he would dissect for her, though a few he refused to speak of.

He wasn't _entirely_ free from social taboo.

After several months she found she could follow the deliberations of the Phrintha Council which she might or might not be _invited_ to, but which she often had to sit within earshot of, so as to be instantly ready to carry messages to the Avatar of Phrintha.

 **{End Chapter 3}**

6


	4. Finish

**Agreement**

One evening Elthanmoi found her wandering among the cages.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

Toda contemplated telling him that she'd been waiting for him. But that wasn't quite the truth. She _had_ been waiting for him. But she'd been waiting _here_ because it was familiar and therefore comfortable. And something else she didn't have a word for, she chased that esquirrenren trail through tangled jungle underbrush until she found the end. And it led right back to...

"I was waiting for you," she said.

"Oh," he said. He sounded pleased, and ... suspicious, "Was that so hard to say?"

"There were two other answers," she said, "I had to check how to say them in human."

"And how do you say them?"

"I was resting," she said, "and I am waiting for you."

"Was and am?" he said.

"Yes," she said and looked at his eyes.

"Was waiting for me to come?" He said, "and still are waiting for me ... to do what?"

"I'm not exactly sure," she said, "since so many things are done so differently here."

"Could you give me a hint?" he said.

She snickered then frowned, "I'm wishing that you'd start doing all the things that, ... a respectable woman from around here would wish you'd do so that she would not risk her honor or her reputation were she to say something like," and she gave a call.

It was a call that meant something like, "I'm _at_ your nest, but where are you?" it was a call most often given between paired esquirrenren during nest building season.

Elthanmoi'n lips twitched, then he took two steps forward and bowed, "Lady," he said, "may I build you a house."

She blinked and whispered, "Am I supposed to say, 'yes' or 'yes, but let me help' or something else?"

"You're supposed to say 'yes, but let me show you where,' and then take out your machete and guide me there. And I follow behind widening the path because logically we'll need a large path between whichever of our parent's house's or gardens we were at the moment when I ask that and wherever we build. Or you're supposed to say, 'yes, but I don't know where,' or you're supposed to say 'if you like, but I'd be just as content with a new room on your mother's house.' Or 'no' if you prefer. Or anything else that feels right but those are the common formulas."

"Hmm," she said.

"It is also common to work into the conversation how many brothers you have that might be willing to help. I'm sure you can calculate what that implies about courtships lasting long enough that one's parents and siblings becomes aware of the possibilities."

"Yes," she said, "I understand. The closest thing I feel to family here is our previous House Avatar. To me he feels like an uncle. Though I don't know if he feels anything more for me than he does toward the rest of the house."

He took a deep breath.

"Oh," she said, "Yes, you may build me a house, but I don't know where."

He stepped forward and hugged her.

"Unless ... up over there," she said, then relaxed and hugged him back.

He turned them around so they could look where she'd pointed.

"That is an excellent choice," he said, "if we are restricted to line of sight from our esquirrenren."

"Our?" she giggled, "esquirrenren?" she pitched her voice slightly different, the way they'd taken to to mean that they were quoting an esquirrenren call without bothering to actually go through the work of giving the call at full volume and exact pitch.

Our 'this is my thing that I'd fight for.' Is what she's twisted his words to mean.

She felt his cheeks work against her hair and cap. And then he quipped, "Which is your thing?" he said.

"If you can't figure out what I'm holding onto," she wiggled her fingers deeper into his sides.

"Eia's mercy," he said.

She stopped but didn't let go. She looked up into his face.

He frowned, "which of the owners do you pray to?"

"I'm not sure," she said, "we talked of the unbroken stone."

"The what?"

"Umm," she said, "the mind that changed itself into the space and all the rocks that exist in it. In order to give us a place to inhabit."

"Do you need me to tell you how offensively strange that sounds."

"Where I come from," she said, "none of the animals have minds big enough to see, but most of the rocks have surfaces that reflect mindness, some of the biggest seem to _be_ minds. Because they had enough facets to reflect enough bits from enough minds around it that actual thoughts seem to be visible."

"Interesting," he said, "Are our teachings as offensive to you?"

"So many of the teachings behind the words are the same," she said, "but the ways of saying them are so very different."

"Hmm," he said, "how can the culture be so different?"

Toda shrugged, "there were no trees, there were very few who weren't ... what we had instead of emoi. Everyone could feel the rocks the ground was made out of, some people could reach up far enough to feel the rock the moon was made of."

He nodded, "and here we have three moons, and four Gods, and your mind can reach thousands of times farther than our strongest emoi, but not in the correct directions to feel the Gods watching us?"

"I don't understand," she said, "show me."

"I'm not one of the emoi," he said, "I've just have so much practice dealing with them that I can deal with esquirrenren too. And you are different again, but it's a very subtle difference except when I bring your attention to it."

She sighed and nodded, "That makes sense."

"Are you sure you want a professional alien for a house builder?" he said.

"Are you sure you want an actual alien for your nest mate?"

He smiled and leaned closer until his forehead rested on hers. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. But she'd never seen these people kiss. Instead the iron discipline of his mind relaxed and her travelsight anchored on him firmly for the first time.

"Oh," she gasped.

"You don't borrow sight and taste like I assumed," He said, "nor smell and memory I don't think. Do you borrow sound and ... _balance_?"

"Thought and spatial awareness," she said.

"Spatial awareness," he murmured, "and whatever social awareness comes with it?"

"Yes," she said.

"How esoteric," he said, "you're even more exotic than I dreamed."

 _That was the desirable way of saying I am alien_. She smiled, _Maybe this wasn't such a horrible idea after all._

The esquirrenren were chattering away about something. She didn't have the travelsight free to check what about. She didn't have her travelsight free at all, he was ... holding on to it somehow. Perhaps the opposite skill of keeping dozens of esquirrenren from anchoring their minds on his. She knew what it would take to break free without his relaxing. And he might have the strength of will to keep her from visiting, just as he was now keeping her from from letting go.

"Are there promises that after we make, it will be appropriate for me to explain to you my duties to the house, even if ... you must keep them secret from everyone else?"

He straightened and released her mind, and cast his solid again to keep any esquirrenren from monopolising him, "Yes, and no. You meant breeding related promises, and ... there aren't, but there are house related and estate related promises that we could make, such that I could be counted your assistant, or you mine, then we could share duties as well as planning efforts about keeping duties fulfilled."

"How do those go?" she said.

"I, Elthanmoi, promise on my mind to aid you in your obligations, to the Gods, to yourself, and to the house of Phrintha. Keeping your secrets, and warning you of dangers, real and honorable, so help me Ädon."

"So do I promise the same thing back, or do I need to promise something in acceptance first?"

He smiled, "you don't have to promise anything at all, but you might need to verify with your elders whether that is the correct and sufficient promise before you share which house secrets with me."

"Alright," she agreed, "I wasn't wanting to share any house secrets with you at all, except exactly what my duties are."

"Are you part of the house breeding program?" he said.

She shivered, "I've been assured that there is no such thing."

He grinned, "There's not, and yet, there is. And then right in the middle of discussing the honorability of various ways we could claim each other, you back up and start talking about house secrets and duties to the house. So I ask again, do you have duties to the house, regarding breeding?"

"I must breed," she said, "and it must be with someone loyal to the house."

He nodded, then shivered, "I _probably_ qualify, but again you should clarify with your elder,"

"And I must do my best to raise my children honourable and loyal to the house."

He nodded, "But no one is choosing for you? And no one is ... You're not coming to me for the comfort you deserve but is not being provided by wherever you're getting your children?"

"Nothing like that," she said, "I was told I could choose for myself. I was told I'm valuable enough that I may choose anyone available and might could get Speaker or Chairman to help with negotiations. But ... I had the feeling that your duties are ... unusual enough that you could say 'no,' if you wanted and they wouldn't push you."

"You can borrow spatial awareness. Directly, not through borrowing sight and sound of a dozen nearby minds and correlating their perspectives." he said, "that is a very rare sense to be able to borrow, of course the emoi want their grandchildren to be possessed of it."

She nodded. _He didn't know the half of it._

"Yes, my duties have ... unusual requirements, but nothing about my duties or capabilities is secret. Now that I think about it, I _might_ have one of the safest minds for you to store secrets in. Everyone in the Reader's family might be able to mount similar defences, or even more aggressive defences, but I don't expect they can keep them up full force for nearly as long per day as I do. Many of the Chairman's siblings are almost as strong."

"Ah," she said. And given that the Chairman and the Reader were together, perhaps there was a breeding program, but perhaps it mostly involved a few well meaning matchmakers manipulating several of the most desirable gene-prints each generation. Or merely the officers of the house offering to negotiate or smooth the way whenever particularly desirable matches formed naturally.

She began to wonder just how many of the messages the Speakers had sent the Chairman recently were related to letting her spend her down time in Phrintha town instead of in the Capitol.

"If I said, I suddenly suspect that the Chairman's family has been pushing us together ever since I made that embarrassing call at the party."

He blinked, and then laughed for a long time, then he stood up and stared into the treetops. "I suspect they've been ... a little more comprehensively responsible than just 'pushing us together'," he said, "they've also been observing us to check whether we like spending time together, and whether we seem healthier for it."

"Oh," she said, "and ... if we weren't, would they have ... started trying to separate us?"

"Yes," he said, "or started pushing us to notice other people."

"Ah," she said, "So, can we at this point take their permission for granted?"

"Permission to breed, yes, permission for you to share your oh so secret duties, perhaps not."

"Hmm," she said, "That gives me a lot more confidence to ask for what I want."

He smiled, "good, What do you want?"

"You," she smiled.

He smiled, "Is that all?"

"You, in my arms," she said.

"You have that," he said.

"In my arms, in my nest," she said.

He smiled wider, "Likewise, Little Toda."

"I'm not particularly little," she said, at least not compared to the people around here.

"No," he agreed, "but your name is so abrupt, slips by so quickly, like your mind-

 _And he doesn't know the half of it._

"-gobbling down a seed of information, and I before I catch my breath from explaining, it has already grown halfway into a tree. And your next words fall from the heights like new leaves and sunbeams, as it burst through the canopy to join the rest of your knowledge."

"Hmm," she said, "Flatterer."

"I really think not," he said, and turned away, though he didn't shield his mind so she wasn't sure what point there was in hiding his expression.

"Really?" she said.

"Really," he breathed.

She stepped up behind him but didn't force another hug on him while he dealt with his emotions.

"Are you sure you want an anomaly like me?" he said.

It wasn't clear if he meant he had emoi genes, and they hadn't expressed yet, and everyone was shunning him until the other shoe dropped and he forgot everything and everyone who'd ever loved him as his mind reorganized to make use of the new senses it was being flooded with. Or it meant everyone suspected he might be a bastard but wasn't _saying_ that.

Or it meant that he'd gotten the mental discipline from growing up protecting his privacy from emoi siblings, and now protecting his autonomy from the herd of esquirrenren he cared for.

"Yes," she said, "a professional foreigner is exactly the kind of anomaly that I am most comfortable around, and is likely to be most comfortable around me."

He turned around and stared into her eyes. His reluctance and fear slowly fading.

"Alright," he said, "all joking and word lessons aside,"

 _Uh oh, what now?_ "What?" she said.

He knelt.

 _What?_

"Lady Toda of secret service to House Phritha," he said, "may I build you a house?"

"Yes," she said, "Yes you may. Please do."

"Do you care where?" he said.

"I assume you want to be in earshot of 'our' esquirrenren?"

"Yes," he sighed.

"Can we be up wind?"

"Of course!" he said.

"That's where your house already _is_ ," she said.

"The thing I live in hardly counts as a house."

She motioned to his left, "like ... a adolescent's nest instead instead of a breeding nest?"

He stared into the canopy in thought, "Yes," he said, "basically."

She relaxed, "would you want to expand it? Or start fresh?"

"Start fresh," he said, "but ... that can happen after spring rain, if you're ... barbarous enough to move in with me right away."

She smirked, "should I be?"

He stood up fast and took her hands, "Toda, please don't say things like that, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you _mean_ them."

She sighed, "I might mean them, or I might not, I'm not clear what the local customs are. Everyone but you seems reticent to tell me."

He grimaced, as if he knew exactly why, and didn't quite disagree. Or he did disagree but wasn't quite willing to buck tradition. He smiled, "Why don't we go sit on my porch, and discuss what the local customs _you_ are used to. And which of _them_ you mean. And perhaps that will help me translate a bit better."

 _It was the first time he'd offered her that option. Usually he kept his sights within the borders of the Ethenoin way of life and that of his esquirrenren. If he was suddenly willing to learn her background, instead of only helping her fit in... If he was willing to sacrifice his specialisation in 'esquirrenren instincts and mentation only' and he was volunteering the sacrifice to ... protect her honour?_

"I'd appreciate that very much, Elthanmoi."

He turned and trotted off, giving an esquirrenren call that mostly translated as, 'my stockpile of those is this way, follow me and I'll bring you a worthwhile trade.' It was generally only heard from adolescents to their siblings. Though sometimes from parents to their children.

In reply Toda quoted the call that meant both, 'following' and 'I'd like to jump to the next tree, hold tight!' or sometimes 'get off the branch I want to land on.'

On his porch he unstrapped his machete and shoes, and disappeared inside only to return with some dried food he spread before her.

While she ate, and explained how her parents had explained the stages of romance, he sharpened his machete.

While she explained the variations of the theme that she'd witnessed in other parts of her native kingdom, he sharpened another machete she hadn't know he had.

When she wound down, he sighed, "Can you hear the esquirrenren from here?"

"When they bother to call, I can. I can't hear their cooing and chirps without cresting the ridge." She pointed.

He pointed up, "what about echoing off the canopy?"

"No," she said.

"Hmm, alright," he said, "When you're off duty, How far away from the Chairman and Speaker are you allowed to travel?"

"That's a secret," she said.

He sighed, "you don't carry a machete, it's a very badly kept secret that you don't go very far alone."

She shivered, "what exactly do people think about me?"

"That you're some kind of slow, and not allowed outside of Phrintha town. Or aren't paid very much, perhaps that you are a beggar and can't afford a machete."

"I don't think anyone has told me not to buy one," she said, "I just haven't felt the need since I arrived."

He nodded, "Do you even know how to assess quality? Make sure you get your money's worth?"

"No idea," she said, "if I had to I might skim the smith's mind."

"This is Phrintha town," said Elthanmoi, "what are the chances the smith might be immune to emoi?"

"Oh," she said, "I hadn't thought of that."

He nodded, "would you be offended if I offer you one of mine?"

"It depends on ... if the gesture would mean anything significant."

"It means an adult has recognised you as old enough to find your way around without following well maintained trails. That you carry it, means that you're prepared to do your part for the community to keep the trails maintained."

"Oh," she said, "Yes, I'll ... start carrying one. Is that all they mean?"

"As a relatively ubiquitous but _not_ inexpensive accessory, the rich and the proud will have several, probably engraved or enamelled, easy to tell apart, so that it is evident that they can afford more than one."

"And you have more than one."

"I do, but I don't rotate through them every day, or every time I leave home, in hopes of being noticed for how many I have."

She nodded.

"Having an extra in case one breaks, is wise. Keeping them both sharp is wise. Having someone sharpen whichever one you aren't using is a decedent luxury. Though politeness allows exceptions for merchants (that spend all their time on the road and probably carry more than one at a time) and in some places there are professional trail maintainers. Many believe that one should sharpen one's own. At least, everyone who lives in a house away from their parents, should probably sharpen their own."

"Are you volunteering to teach me that too?"

"No," he said, "buy your own, and ask the smith for sharpening lessons while you have him thankful for your business."

"Alright," she said.

"You can afford to buy your own?"

"Sort of," she said, "If a normal person would consider owning two a reasonable living expense, the house will buy them for me if I so demand, perhaps not both at once."

"Demand?"

"I am under the impression that the house cannot actually afford my services. Nor can I afford the protection that the house has extended to me."

He shuddered and stared at her, "With the result that you are a very well kept pet, just like all the most powerful emoi and esquirrenren?"

Her eyes widened.

"I should have guessed," he said, "you were always remarkably unconcerned with money and status, and only concerned with honour and unusually nervous about privacy from emoi of other clans."

She nodded, "where do those seeds lead you?"

"You don't play the games of the normal people because you've already won," he said, "you don't parade around with a name like Reader or Avatar, but to the house you are just as important."

She shook her head, "I know nothing important and I am dispensable, it is only my services that are indispensable."

He swallowed, "then how many rooms for how many children should we be designing in our house?"

"I don't know," she said.

"If you were male instead of female," he swallowed again and looked away, "if we were Thriss or Parf instead of Phrintha, would you be one of those that receives an allotment of the wild ekshi to breed with?"

"What are ekshi?"

He looked farther away, "you know that we a very careful to find and teach our emoi how to be emoi, because otherwise the change might startle them and then they forget everything, at least once, some once per sense talent."

"Yes, and those who can't afford tutors are encouraged to visit the esquirrenren colony in case one will attach and teach the unawakened emoi to deal with having foreign noise in their mind and to focus anyway."

"Exactly," said Elthanmoi, "What do you think happens if they are away from home when they forget? Or run away shortly after because their city is too dense with minds and they cannot focus."

"No idea?"

"They go into the jungle to find peace, some find solitude, some are found by esquirrenren and are forced to learn strong focus in self defense, and at least have a partner that believes in property and in maintaining proper bodily function, and each can tell that their partner is not the same shape mind as their own. Which helps the emoi prefer human society whenever it is that the esquirrenren grows bored and releases them. Some find or are found by Euamma, and either return very calm and very wise, or turn deep drinker and never leave the side of the stronger mind they have found. And some find ekshi, the little monkeys, and may or may not still be sane and able to learn language when they are found."

"And if they cannot be ... tamed again?"

"In some places they are hunted or ignored until they pick up the habit of raiding gardens, the same as the monkeys. Some places such raiders are trapped the same as the monkeys and tamed and trained usually by inducing the altruism addiction, until and unless they differentiate themselves by learning language and higher planning skills."

"Deep drinkers that cannot even speak?" _She'd heard of deep drinkers. The emoi that were addicted to the joy that they could cause in others. Village slaves basically. Some places fed them, and were proud of their sizeable and willing work force, some places mostly didn't feed them. Some places didn't feed them and were proud that they helped them work themselves to death, because 'removing the temptation for others to exploit them,' was somehow beneficial to the moral fibre of the village. Toda was certain that 'exploiting them to keep others from exploiting them' was not valid ethics, but she still felt herself too much a foreigner to argue that with anyone except perhaps present company. She'd learned that in parts of the country no one tried to keep the emoi from being deep drinkers, the emoi headband was less warning about eavesdropping more a badge of willing slave labour._

"Yes,"

"And these are called wild ekshi?"

"No," he shrugged, "just deep drinkers, wild ekshi are those that even the addiction cannot tame."

"Killed?" asked Toda.

He shuddered again, "Here, yes. Most places, yes. We are not rich enough to give them a long time to try to learn. Most families can afford for a pre-trained emoi to recluse and malinger for a month or two. Very few, without the support of a house richer than ours, can afford to re-raise an infant that is as strong and hungry as 6 to 12 years old and mean and scared of every mind that comes inside its range."

"I understand," said Toda,

"Those that cannot be tamed must be kept caged, or taken _far_ into the jungle and released which (except in legend) amounts to the same thing," said Elthanmoi, "there is no work for them."

"And a 'breeding program' is what it is called when ..."

"When ... work is found for them anyway."

Elthanmoi nodded, and looked as though rather than discuss the taboo, he'd really prefer to repeat all nine strategies that are used in preference to killing or breeding, the children that could not handle becoming emoi, or could not recover from meeting the wrong kind of monkeys at an impressionable point in their redevelopment.

"Alright," sighed Toda, "now that I understand what everyone means by the breeding program that we emphatically don't have. I think, yes, I've even been told, yes, that my talents are valued that way. But loyalty is an even more prised secondary trait, if I were male, perhaps all the most successful _and loyal_ females that didn't mind might be encouraged to have one child by me. I don't think I'd be paired with ..."

"Questionable sanity?"

"Yeah."

"Your secret talents are beginning to sound more ominous,"

"I think just rare, and amusingly good for Phrintha specifically, especially to the extent that our rivals don't know I exist."

"Ah,"

"Fortunately I'm female, and I cannot bare very many more children by racing, than I can by just being happy. So they tell me they wish for me to be happy, they tell me they will buy whatever I _need_. But they do not give me a title, and they do not tell me to buy whatever I _want_."

"Hmm," he said, "then yes, 'demand' one machete. And until they deliver," he slid the second machete across the planks toward her, "The preparedness of having a second machete ready is an expense that can be spared, because I have an extra and I've already permitted you to borrow it whenever you wish."

"Alright, thank you."

He met her eyes and smiled, "It is my great happiness to entrust you with the honour of your first machete."

"Thanks," she said again, "umm, what did you just call me?"

"Old enough to walk from your parents' house to your parents' garden without supervision," he said, "somewhere between eight and twelve, depending on the distance involved. _Someone_ really should have given or lent you one long ago. But perhaps there was no one who considered themselves close enough family. Or those who know of your talent do did not dare pretend they are worthy to bestow such an honour."

 _Or they understood that a machete is somewhat redundant as a means of travel in my case, though not as an expression of adult responsibility keeping the jungle out of the way._ Aloud she said, "Or they could see that I was still too much a foreigner to understand the honour, and didn't feel like exercising the patience to teach me."

He smiled wider, "speaking of teaching," he nodded to the nearby undergrowth, "shall we explore where around here we'd like to put a house?"

"Yes!" she said.

She soon had blisters, and understood exactly why such an exploration counted as 'teaching'.

.

On the other hand, blisters, and medicine for blisters turned out to be a good excuse for him to spend a long time touching her hands after.

 **Epilogue**

 _Elthanmoi?_

"... Toda?"

He opened his mind a bit more and she anchored. _Yes, it's me. They gave me blessing both to tell you my secret, and to move into any house you say is big enough for both of us._

 _Is that exactly what they said._

 _Yes, it is exactly what they said. I take it that it means something odd?_

 _It means they want you to breed four months earlier than I can build a real house, but they are carefully not demanding it._

 _So should we be offended? Or should we do what they wish but do not ask out loud?_

 _They did not ask aloud, we cannot be offended. However ... do you wish to help build your house like a strong independent woman? Or are you content to seem the girl who cannot help because she is pregnant and whose brothers must come and help in her place._

 _My brother is not ... in sight of our moons._

 _I'm very aware of that fact. Do you want to go somewhere private to discuss this?_

 _Please._

 _Where are you?_

 _Avatar's house in the capital. Where are you? Is anyone around?_

 _I'd forgotten your emoi range was that far. And no, only esquirrenren and you are tasting my mind at the moment._

 _So may I visit?_

 _Any time._

 _Can you open your mind a tiny bit wider so that I can see your balance?_

 _Umm? Like so?_

"Yes, thank you."

"Toda! What?"

"This is what I do for Phritha," said Toda, "I carry things instead of just sensations from Council to Avatar and back."

"This is ... as impossible as it is ... explanatory," he stared at her, "all your stories of your ... other place, all the secrecy about your talent. No one gave you a machete."

Toda nodded.

He took a deep breath, "Where have you been sleeping?"

"Either in Phrintha Council guest house or in Avatar guest wing. Whichever seems closest to the next message I'd need to carry."

"And as long as you check in a bit before breakfast time, it wouldn't slow down anything important if you slept in my house instead."

"Exactly,"

"Go get your things, I'll make room for them right away, brothers and house sizes disregarding."

"Elthanmoi,"

"Hm?"

"Elthanmoi, I own two sets of clothes and a machete."

"And a purse?"

She shook her head, "the council's treasury is my purse, I have no money of my own."

"You can't bother them every time you want to buy a fruit or some bread and meat to wrap in it."

"Usually I eat at Council house and bring the leftovers to Avatar, do you have any idea how much food costs in the capital? Sometimes I eat in the capital, the rest of the time I eat with you."

Elthanmoi snorted, "and they haven't started giving you crates and crates of merchandise to move around?"

"It would be too obvious that we were working without boats, and anyway Avatar doesn't have time to open up a shop."

Elthanmoi smiled, "no, I wouldn't expect she does ... anyway ... The council pays for about half my food also, so they shouldn't mind terribly if you start eating with me instead of with them."

.

"Toda, you're pregnant, you really don't need to help with this."

"I've helped from the exploring and clearing at the beginning, I'm not going to quit now, anyway. I'm only three months along, it hardly counts."

"I could really use a mother-in-law right now. Do you think the Reader would tell you to sit down for me?"

"No, and anyway she's in the capital today."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I dropped her off this morning,"

"Hmph,"

.

"What should we name him?"

"Anything we want, but ... does your culture encourage naming after relatives?"

"Yes, mildly, but only living relatives. Here?"

"Only dead relatives," he said.

"Hmm, that doesn't leave very much overlap, also I no longer have no idea which of my relatives are still alive."

"How about Eumaeus, from my brother,"

"I don't think I've met your brother,"

Elthanmoi was silent.

"Not even in your stories, is he dead then?"

"He's not dead, but ... it's not his name anymore,"

"Emoi?"

He nodded, "he's a deep drinker, technically, though fairly sane and a ... healthier sense of consequences than people normally expect from someone with the addiction."

"Oh, I didn't know."

"It's alright. He still lives with Mom, is her hands and eyes."

"It runs in families, right?"

"Yes, definitely,"

"Just how close to the surface are your talents?"

"I should have awoken slightly younger than he did, but somehow I was lucky enough to meet esquirrenren two years running. I learned a tremendous amount of focus, when the awakening came instead of looking for quiet by running away I found the curtains and pulled them closed."

"Oh. Oh my."

"So ... I have talent enough when I hate myself enough to use it, but I haven't don't spend enough time with all the windows open at the same time for it to reorganize my brain."

"Alright,"

"Though usually when I use it I focus on one or two minds at a time, not unfocused on everything within range."

"Right, so more like what I can do?"

"Yes,"

"Alright,"

.

 **{End Excerpt Story}**


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